Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s reading calls believers to be like little children, a text that has been used as an argument for all sorts of nonsense. The mistaken idea is that religious experience should be childlike and placed in childlike terms—reduced to a chewable theology designed for small children with missing teeth. Is it no surprise then, that adults turn from this simplistic explanation and consider religion something for children and superstitious? The image intended is one of dependence, the idea that children are (or should be) receptive to what is given to them because they are not capable of attaining it themselves. Although we participate in the invitation given by God’s grace, that grace is always prior and it is our task, as the First Principle and Foundation states, to understand creation in light of God’s invitation to reach our fullest potential. Hence that understanding of creation requires more than just a child-like gaze at the world. If we take seriously Ignatius’ command to understand creation we must recognize our dependence on God, like a child is dependent on its parents, but we also understand our examination of the world as mature into men and women who need to have the skills to discern the merits of creation in a serious manner so that all decisions can be made to comply with a love of that same God and love of neighbor.